Comodo Internet Security v3.8: The Newbie
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: 2009, antivirus, test | Themes: Software
- 1. One-Stop Comparison for 14 Anti-Virus Titles
- 2. Anti-Virus Basics
- 3. Comodo Internet Security v3.8: The Newbie
- 4. Avira Antivir Personal Free Edition v9.0.0386: The Best of the Freebies
- 5. Clamwin Free Antivirus 0.94.1: Open Source Protection Software
- 6. Avast! 4.8 Home Edition Free: The Classic
- 7. BitDefender Total Security 2009: A Balanced Choice
- 8. F-Secure Internet Security 2009: A Disappointment
- 9. Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security Pro 2009: A Reasonable Option
- 10. McAfee Internet Security 2009: Very Complete
- 11. Norton Antivirus 2009: The Choice For Ease and Simplicity
- 12. Panda Global Protection 2009: An Outsider Who’s Left In The Dust
- 13. G-Data Total Care 2009: The Heavy Weight Of Security
- 14. ESET Smart Security 4 (Nod32 Antivirus 4): A Positive Evolution
- 15. Kaspersky Antivirus 2009: A Half-Colored Version
- 16. AVG Internet Security v8.5 (paid version): An Insufficient Evolution of What You Can Get For Free
- 17. The Verdict
- 18. The Test Protocol
- 19. More on this topic
3. Comodo Internet Security v3.8: The Newbie
As the newest offering in our roundup, Comodo is a free offering that caught our eye.
Easier To Handle
Embellished with bright colors, the graphics are pleasing to the eye. Comodo's readability, however, is pretty poor. Navigating your way around and learning the commands take some getting used to, but things get better with practice.
The default settings are comprehensible and changing them to make them more personalized is easy. It’s unfortunate, however, that the settings don’t offer more possibilities.
We must admit, though, that the parental control feature is praiseworthy. This feature helps to ward off, among other things, Trojan viruses that might otherwise infect your PC.
A Weak Level of Protection
The performance of the threat detection engine is pretty crappy (the worst that we tested, in fact), especially when it comes to detecting malicious programs that are embedded in .ZIP files.
The resident protection is also lacking. It’s programmed to only work when you open a file and then open an index. The infected .TXT portions, however, are almost never detected and there is no protection against infected email attachments.
It’s a shame that most of the virus-protection features are so bad since Comodo does so well when it comes to detecting viruses from external sources, such as USB-attached devices, external hard drives, etc. Comodo automatically scans all external devices as soon as they are attached. When bad files are detected, they are promptly deleted.
A Very Light System Indeed
When you use Comodo, the start-up time for Windows is slowed down just a little bit, by 8%. Scanning the hard drive is also pretty quick (23 minutes in our case) and only takes up a small part of the system's processor and active-memory resources.
It’s really only the uninstall process that poses a problem. Not only can the Safesurf program not be uninstalled (which is comprised of a file and three register keys) but the “Ask” icon remains on the Internet Explorer toolbar.
Conclusion
As the newcomer in our anti-virus roundup, Comodo has far from convinced us of its worth. Despite the presence of a firewall (it is the only one among the free software offerings that we tested that has this feature) it doesn’t really shine in any other domain and its security features are among the worst we’ve seen this year.
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And here I thought AVG Free was the best free antivirus.
Kaspersky internet security/ anti-virus does not look like that.. what the heck
No NOD32?
What about Microsoft's own Oncecare
These guys sound like they don't know what they are talking about. They claimed that Avast skips text files even though "they are a classic refuge for malevolent programs." Text files cannot be executed and therefore cannot contain viruses. The pictures they have are different as well. In any case I am a happy user of Avast and prefer it to McAfee and Norton but have not tried the others.
the picture they use for Avast is with a different skin. You can switch the skin at anytime.
I m using avast home too. I think the scanning for HD is bit longer and taxing a lot on my P4 2.6. But its free..no complain...
what about Kespersky ??? lol so much missing good antivirus software
Spanish Kespersky = norman?
French... T_T?? not english there we go
KASPERSKY Ftw ...
what I used to like on Tom's site was the use of graphs... can't find any in this round up. More over how the can you judge resident scan performance just on start up time? What about disk R/W after all services have been initialized?
Anyway quite poor article
I use Norton NIS 2009, and have had problems that made me look for another. When I saw this article, I said "Great timing lol !"
Unfortunately, there is nothing in this article that inspires confidence in either the comparisons or the conclusions. There are comments about Norton that my personal experiences tell me are incorrect (at least in the US).
And, as said before, no tables, etc.
Very disappointing.
@Shadow703793: NOD32 is in page 14
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/2009-a [...] 15-14.html
@romain_75: Kaspersky in page 15
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/2009-a [...] 15-15.html
@shurcooL: So do I, use AVG for last 3 years thinking it was best one.
May be good time for change ...
eset smart security 4!!!and zone alarm extreme security 8
I'm very surprised to hear that Norton is not a resource hog. It is the reason I switched to free AV software like Avast and AVG. I'm not going back to Norton even if they paid me...OK I might consider it.
Why do you have pictures of Kaspersky on the page with AVG antivirus?
haha kapersky became norman.. avg became kepersky.. lol
Was this review bought or something? For Norton to get such a good review I am leaning towards it being bought. I mean c'mon, Norton not being a resource hog and stealing your system. How do you expect us to believe that?
Why not review Kaspersky Internet Security, instead of just the Antivirus, when the Internet Security package for other brands were reviewed?
Also, The KAV Internest Securitiy is $54.99 at Walmart. The review stated it was double.
I seriously have my doubts and found myself shaking my head after reading the reviews for several of the products in here.
I'm surprised you didn't give a "Best Value" award... I'd say for best value go with Trend Micro, for less than $20 you can get protection for 3 PCs for one year (Look online you will find it). I use it on all my computers and no complaints.